TORONTO, August 29, 2003 - The 2003 Voyageurs Cup concludes this weekend with two matches that will determine the winner of the second annual championship for Canada's top professional soccer teams.
The Montreal Impact and Toronto Lynx are the only two teams still in contention for the trophy, and each will host the Calgary Storm this weekend.
Montreal hold a one-point lead over Toronto in the Voyageurs Cup standings, as well as the tiebreaker should the two teams finish even on points. Therefore, Toronto will win the trophy if they defeat Calgary and Montreal does not, and otherwise it will stay with the defending champions in Montreal.
Toronto will host Calgary on Friday at 8 PM Eastern at Centennial Park Stadium. This match will be broadcast live on television by Fox Sports World Canada.
Montreal will host Calgary on Sunday at 4 PM Eastern. This match will be simulcast live on radio and Web by Montreal's CJAD 800 AM (www.cjad.com) in English and CKAC 730 AM (www.ckac.com) in French. It will then be broadcast on television by RDS on tape-delay at 7 PM Eastern.
The previous set of Voyageurs Cup matches featured the Vancouver Whitecaps traveling across the country to face all three Canadian rivals. They began by eliminating Calgary from Voyageurs Cup contention with a 2-1 win on August 4, thanks to late goals by Jason Jordan and Carlo Corazzin in response to an early one by Calgary's Nicolas Zuniga.
Vancouver then needed wins in Montreal and Toronto to keep themselves in contention for the Voyageurs Cup. However, they fell short in Montreal on August 6 as they were only able to draw 1-1, on a late equalizer by Nick Dasovic following an early goal by Montreal's Zé Roberto. Vancouver concluded their trip with a 1-0 win in Toronto on August 8, the lone goal scored by Carlo Corazzin.
Vancouver finished their Voyageurs Cup schedule with a record of 3 wins, 2 losses and 1 draw for 10 points. They are currently even with Montreal on points but are behind on the tiebreaker.
Also to be settled this weekend is the 2003 Voyageurs Cup scoring title. Montreal's Ali Ngon leads with 5 goals, though he scored all of these while still with Toronto earlier in the season. Montreal's Ze Roberto is not far behind with 3 goals. 2002 co-winner Eduardo Sebrango also has 3 goals for Montreal, but he is out for the remainder of the season with an injury.
ABOUT THE VOYAGEURS CUP
The Voyageurs, Canada's national soccer fan club, inaugurated the Voyageurs Cup, Canada's only national, fan-awarded soccer trophy, in 2002. The Voyageurs Cup trophy is awarded annually to the most successful Canadian A-League team, based on matches with other Canadian A-League teams.
The Voyageurs will present the Voyageurs Cup trophy to that team at a home game late in the season. The Cup will remain in possession of the winning team for display until the beginning of the following A-League season. The entire cost of the Voyageurs Cup, including purchasing, maintaining, engraving, shipping, and promoting the trophy and tournament, has been borne entirely by private donations from individual Voyageurs.
The Montreal Impact won the inaugural Voyageurs Cup in 2002.
The full Voyageurs Cup results, schedule, standings, and more are available at www.voyageurscup.ca.
ABOUT THE VOYAGEURS
The Voyageurs soccer fan club was founded in 1996 as a national group of fans of Canada's men's World Cup team. Since then, they have been a visible (and audible) presence at Canadian national team games both in Canada and abroad, at all age levels, for both the men's and women's teams.
The Voyageurs are maintained, run, and funded entirely by its fiercely enthusiastic members. The Voyageurs host the most active Canadian soccer forum on the Internet (at www.canadian-soccer.com), with participants including fans, national-level players, media representatives, and CSA representatives. The forum receives over 300,000 hits per month.
CONTACTING THE VOYAGEURS
Matthew Bin, Director of Communications for the Voyageurs Cup, is available to provide any further information about the Voyageurs or the Voyageurs Cup competition.
Matthew Bin
19 Bond Court
Guelph, Ontario
N1H 8N6
519-729-8432
info@voyageurscup.ca
